Are environmental-related online reviews more helpful? A big data analytics approach

Abstract

Purpose Based on more than 2.7 million online reviews (ORs) collected with big data analytical techniques from Booking.com and TripAdvisor.com, this paper aims to explore if and to what extent environmental discourse embedded in ORs has an impact on electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) helpfulness across eight major destination cities in North America and Europe. Design/methodology/approach This study gathered, by means of Big Data techniques, 2.7 million ORs hosted on Booking.com and TripAdvisor, and covering hospitality services in eight different destinations cities in North America (New York City, Miami, Orlando and Las Vegas) and Europe (Barcelona, London, Paris and Rome) over the period 2017–2018. The ORs were analysed by means of ad hoc content analytic dictionaries to identify the presence and depth of the environmental discourse included in each OR. A negative binomial regression analysis was used to measure the impact of the presence/depth of online environmental discourse in ORs on e-WOM helpfulness. Findings The findings indicate that the environmental discourse presence and depth influence positively e-WOM helpfulness. More specifically those travelers who write explicitly about environmental topics in their ORs are more likely to produce ORs that are voted as helpful by other consumers. Research limitations/implications Implications highlight that both hotel managers and platform developers/managers should become increasingly aware of the importance that customer attach to environmental practices and initiatives and therefore engage more assiduously in environmental initiatives, if their objective is to improve online review helpfulness for other customers reading the focal reviews. Future studies might include more destinations and other operationalizations of environmental discourse. Originality/value This study constitutes the first attempt to capture how the presence and depth of hospitality services consumers’ environmental discourse influence e-WOM helpfulness on multiple digital platforms, by means of a big data analysis on a large sample of online reviews across multiple countries and destinations. As such it makes a relevant contribution to the area at the intersection between big data analytics, e-WOM and sustainable tourism research.

Big data and analytics in hospitality and tourism: a systematic literature review

“…Third, when we focus on articles published in H&T outlets, the prevailing macro-topical areas are as follows: the perceptions, experiences, emotions, satisfaction and engagement with hospitality and tourism services of tourists residents and service providers (Cheng and Jin, 2019; Filieri and Mariani, 2021; Lee et al , 2019; Mariani et al , 2018; Mariani and Borghi, 2021; Park et al , 2020); demand evaluation and forecast/prediction (Höpken et al , 2020; Park and Pan, 2018; Sánchez-Medina and C-Sánchez, 2020); mapping, identification and representation of tourists, tourist behaviors, attractions, destinations and trips (Batista e Silva et al , 2018; Chun et al , 2020; Ma et al , 2020); knowledge and value creation (Kubo et al , 2020; Line et al , 2020), also in smart cities and smart ecosystems (Buhalis and Sinarta, 2019); and methodological contributions, shedding light on a specific technique or family of techniques (Alaei et al , 2019; Fu et al , 2019; Kirilenko et al , 2018), measurement problems (Khalilzadeh and Tasci, 2017), data quality issues (Xiang et al , 2017) or platform issues and features (Salas-Olmedo et al , 2018). …”

“…the perceptions, experiences, emotions, satisfaction and engagement with hospitality and tourism services of tourists residents and service providers (Cheng and Jin, 2019; Filieri and Mariani, 2021; Lee et al , 2019; Mariani et al , 2018; Mariani and Borghi, 2021; Park et al , 2020);…”

Residents’ perceptions of environmental certification, environmental impacts and support for the world expo 2015: the moderating effect of place attachment

“…Understanding residents' engagement with environmental issues on social media may also provide a way to understand the importance of managing environmental impacts to boost ES, and guide decisions for event attendance. As Mariani and Borghi (2021) observed, online consumers' environmental discourses positively affect how they perceive electronic word-of-mouth helpfulness in hotel choice.…”

“…Consequently, customers and residents can find it difficult to make a priori assessments of an event's environmental sustainability. Thus, environmental certification can provide an effective means for signaling environmental commitments to gain customer attention and trust while enhancing an event's reputation, both offline and online (Mariani and Borghi, 2021).…”

Addicted to cruises? Key drivers of cruise ship loyalty behavior through an e-WOM approach

“…Despite the perhaps undeniable advantages in terms of costs and benefits of working with immense databases from online reviews (as is shown by the proliferation of such works in the hospitality field using portals, such as TripAdvisor.com and Booking.com; see e.g. Filieri et al , 2020; Mariani and Borghi, 2021), their limitations with respect to defining variables will continue to justify the need for fieldwork with small samples and longer questionnaires, the results of which could serve as a robustness check for findings. Another second, complementary future research line concerning cruise research specifically could be the use of the same e-WOM database to analyze how the ongoing complicated sailing restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which often turn a cruise vessel into a “big floating social bubble”, are influencing general satisfaction and cruisers’ loyalty behavior.…”